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Listened to the audiobook 🔊

“She's the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother is so important to science, why can't we get health insurance?��

How the hell did I finish medical school without hearing about Henrietta Lacks?!!!
It is embarrassing that I only heard about this book and more importantly about Henrietta from a friend and I think if it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't have read this book.

This is a book about Henrietta Lacks and her cells which are called HeLa cells. Those cells that were taken without her knowledge and used in research and are still being used to this day. Skloot dives into details from Henrietta's life to her cells and how they were used and extending that to the lives of her family members and most importantly that of Deborah Lacks. It is a kind of a biography novel, but it also entails Skloot's efforts to gather everything she can into what we're reading.

I like to think of the book as two halves: The first one about Henrietta and her cells. The second one is about her family. I loved the first part; it was worth 5 stars in my opinion. The second part was less interesting, and I am giving it 3 stars which brings my final rating to 4 stars. Skloot explains why she did so in the afterward and I respect her choices. I just found the part about the cells fascinating. To be honest, it doesn't have to do with my background in medicine because it was presented in a simple way. I just went into the book expecting and wanting more of that and less about her daughter.

It is funny that I listened to the audiobook while driving to the hospital and back home and it feels funny specially how this involves the worse parts of the medical field. There are a lot of ethical questions asked here and I think the audiobook format gave me more time to ponder over them. I think Henrietta Lacks deserved better no matter what her cells contributed to! A very interesting read to anyone interested in the less humanitarian side of medicine.